Las Vegas Weekly

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Spread some cheer with cocktails designed to impress party guests, celebrate the season and help you survive a visit from your in-laws.

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  Photo: Leila Navidi

  Mom's Hot Buttered Rum

  If I can’t be home for Christmas, all I want is a steamy cup of Mom’s Hot Buttered Rum ($12). The concoction by Cosmopolitan mixologist Mariena Mercer is served at the resort’s Ice Rink and has a special touch from executive chef Jeff Walter: The recipe for the butter mix came from his mom on a hand-written note.

  Ingredients:

  4 oz. hot milk

  2 tbsp. butter mix (see below)

  1½ oz. Monte Cristo 12-year spiced rum

  Butter mix ingredients:

  ½ g. vanilla ice cream

  ½ lb. butter

  ½ lb. brown sugar

  ½ lb. powdered sugar

  1 tsp. nutmeg

  ½ tsp. cinnamon

  Method: For butter mix, melt the butter and stir in sugars and spices until it has the consistency of a caramel. Put softened ice cream in blender, drizzle the hot caramel and blend until evenly mixed. Refreeze. For the cocktail, add Monte Cristo, butter mix and hot milk in a glass and stir.

• STMP (Surviving the Mayan premonition)

  Chateau mixologist Gerald Pacheco’s STMP ($25) is a go-to seasonal cocktail that you’ll want to sip on even if the world doesn’t end on December 21.

  Ingredients:

  4 oz. Perrier-Jouët Grand Brut

  ¾ oz. TyKu Soju

  ¾ oz. TyKu

  Citrus Liqueur

  ¾ oz. St. Germain liqueur

  raspberry and lemon

  twist (Garnish)

  Method: Pre-mix the three liquors together and store the mix in a glass bottle in the
refrigerator. Add 1½ oz. of chilled mix into a champagne flute then fill up with Perrier-Jouët. Stir gently and serve. Garnish with whole raspberry and twisted peel of lemon.

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  Snowflake

  “Mele Kalikimaka” means “Merry Christmas to you” in Hawaii, and it’s the inspiration behind Jose Zepeda’s Snowflake ($18). Served at the Bellagio’s Hyde, the cocktail has fruit flavors complemented by drops of liquid nitrogen and a coconut rim that makes this snowflake a pure holiday delight.

  Ingredients:

  ¾ oz. Cîroc Coconut

  ¾ oz. Malibu

  ¾ oz. white

  cranberry juice

  ½ oz. simple syrup

  ½ oz. lemon juice

  coconut flakes (rim)

  3 drops of liquid nitrogen

  Method:Rim cocktail glass with coconut flakes. Add all ingredients except liquid nitrogen to a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into martini glass. Add 3 drops of liquid nitrogen and serve.

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  Photo: Christopher DeVargas

  Poinsettia

  La Cave General Manager Jennifer Holley keeps the restaurant’s specialty cocktail list flavored with a little competitive spirit. For the winter staff cocktail competition, bartender Trevor Roseman created the Poinsettia ($15), which represents the flavors of the holidays while keeping it fresh and simple. Sip solo or quadruple the recipe to serve guests a colorful, fruit-packed holiday punch.

  Ingredients:

  1½ oz. Nolet Gin

  1 oz. cranberry juice

  ¾ oz. PAMA pomegranate liqueur

  ½ oz. fresh squeezed

  lemon juice

  ½ oz. agave nectar

  pomegranate seeds (garnish)

  Method: Shake all ingredients with ice. Strain into a chilled martini glass. Garnish with three pomegranate seeds.